MILLERSVILLE, Md. — Gotcha. That’ll be 250 bucks.
Automated school bus camera systems are not necessarily new, but the technology is starting to pop up in school districts all over Maryland. And wherever these cameras go, money follows.
With tickets starting at $250 a pop, and thousands of violators a year, there are millions to be made. So where does all that money go?
Most of the counties in Maryland that have outfitted their busses with the AI-powered camera systems work with a vendor called “Bus Patrol.”Bus Patrol keeps 60% of the ticket revenues. The local government hangs on to 40, minus a monthly “tech fee” that’s usually around $100K. Bus Patrol fronts the capital needed to administer the program.
How It Works
Bus Patrol cameras flag violators using AI. Then the footage is sent to the county, where real people review it to see whether the driver actually broke the law. The decision on whether to issue a citation lies solely with the local governments, not the vendor.
In Anne Arundel County, which installed cameras on most of its buses two years ago, Lieutenant Erin Brandt says the traffic safety enforcement team is tough but fair, checking to see if a bus driver gave enough warning time for other drivers to stop safely. Here in Maryland, bus drivers are supposed to activate their flashing yellow lights at least 100 feet before they stop.
“We are scrutinizing in the review process - was it reasonable? Was it a reasonable amount of time for the driver of the other vehicle to stop,” Lt. Brandt explained.
“It’s really a money grab”
During the 2023-2024 school year, Bus Patrol cameras captured more than $53,000 potential violations in Anne Arundel County. The department only approved a little over 19,000, about 37% of them.
Still, in that year, Bus Patrol made more than $2 million from Anne Arundel County drivers.
But can you really put a price on keeping kids safe?
Lt. Brandt disputes the idea that money is the motivator for anyone involved. The money goes into the county's general fund, not the public safety fund.
“No, because that's why the vendors are not the ones reviewing the citations. And since the police department benefits not specifically from these citations, this has nothing to do with that. This has everything to do with our office really being focused on pedestrian safety, our children's safety, and safe driving,” she told WMAR-2 News’ Elizabeth Worthington. “That has no bearing on it, and I think that is shown clearly by the fact that we're not approving 70, 80, 90% of these citations. We are scrutinizing them because safety is important, but also following the law and holding everyone accountable and being fair about that matters.”
“For some people, it is well-intentioned. They do actually believe there's a problem that needs to be solved. But for the vast majority of situations, it's really a money grab,” Jay Beeber, executive director of the National Motorists Association, told WMAR-2 News.
He believes the ticketing system is set up for drivers to fail, and that many violations don’t actually put students in danger.
“If you only ticketed the real egregious violators, they would never make the kinds of money that they make on this. So therefore, they don’t ever want to set up such a system because they wouldn’t make the millions and millions of dollars,” he said.
Allegations of unfair ticketing
For this Florida driver who spoke to our sister station in Tampa, a camera flagged him passing a bus while the stop-arm was still extending.
“I saw the video and I’m like, ‘ok you got me, right? And then I played it through, and I’m like…’hold on,’” he told WFTS reporter Katie LaGrone.
But videos provided by Bus Patrol show near-misses that occurred when a child started walking towards the bus, before the driver put its stop-arm out, making a case for a strict ticketing system.
However, allegations of unfair ticketing practices have also emerged in Pittsburgh and New York State.
In two upstate New York counties, thousands of tickets were thrown out after a driver won a lawsuit against his local government; he argued the video evidence failed to prove that the school bus was actually loading or unloading students at the time that he drove by.
His success in court led the state to tighten its law. Now, drivers must assume any stopped school bus is picking up or dropping off kids.
But most people don’t bother fighting their tickets.
In Anne Arundel County for example, 97% of the more than 19,000 violators were found guilty last year.
“They set it up so you’re encouraged just to pay it and not fight it,” Beeber claims.
Lt. Brandt disagrees: “Oh no. I think that our reviewing process is so scrutinized that when those citations come through and you see that video of your car clearly passing those red stop lights, there is no arguing with that. It is clear that that was a violation. There's no wiggle room. There's no gray area. You clearly had time to stop and should have stopped.”
“More likely to be struck by lightning”
Beeber says the math doesn’t add up though. There are so many violations, but not many children getting hurt as they get on and off the bus.
In data provided to him by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, four students in the past 10 years have been hit and killed by a driver illegally passing a school bus.
“Just to put that into perspective, a school child in any particular year is 19,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be killed by a driver illegally passing a school bus,” he told WMAR-2 News.
Delegate David Moon has been making this case in the state legislature for years. He represents Montgomery County; automated cameras have been on busses there the longest in the state, nearly a decade. He questions why certain bus stops haven’t been changed if they are as dangerous as the number of violations would suggest.
“So if you care about the kids, you think these are dangerous bus stops, well then you tell me - should we leave everything the same if year over year 2,000 cars are blowing by that bus stop? Well if it’s about the money, you’re gonna say - that’s fine, let them keep blowing by. Those kids may or may not get hit but we’re getting the money,” Moon testified to the Environment and Transportation Committee in February 2024.
He’s offered multiple potential solutions, including issuing warnings for first-time violators, changing bus stops to safer locations, or requiring local governments to use ticket revenues for safety improvements, like medians.
Nothing has ever made it out of the General Assembly.
“Nobody’s moving the stops, nobody’s doing anything to make them safer, and the money keeps flowing,” he testified last year.
Testifying against Del. Moon’s bill that would require warnings for first-time violators rather than citations, Major Daniel Rodriguez from the Anne Arundel County Police Department said, “This bill would force school systems and law enforcement to weaken the current state of protections by issuing warnings to first offenders rather than the citation, and we are deeply concerned that that could - unintended as it could be - send a message that it is, in some instances, ok to pass a bus with its lights on, with the stop sign out, and with children boarding or disembarking from the school bus.”
One new way Anne Arundel County police are trying to make bus stops safer is that starting this calendar year, they're beefing up patrols and enforcement efforts at the three bus stops in the district with the highest number of violations.
Bob Mosier, spokesperson for Anne Arundel County Public Schools, said in a statement to WMAR-2 News: “The intent of the program is to change the habits of drivers who unnecessarily endanger the lives of students as they walk to or from school buses. Any type of increased awareness is beneficial to our families. Anne Arundel County Public Schools is provided the data to review, but to date has not made any changes in bus stops as a result of the data. “
Changing driver behavior?
Has the automated enforcement system led to changes in driver habits, as is the stated goal of the school district? Lt. Brandt says that’s a difficult question to answer. The cameras only record the registered owner’s information, not the specific driver. Also, every school year the county has installed cameras on more of its busses, so there could be more citations just because there are more cameras out there to capture them. Indeed, in Anne-Arundel County, the number of citations did increase slightly from the 2022-2023 school year to the 2023-2024 school year: from about 18,000 to about 19,000.
Small increases were also recorded for the same period in Howard, Harford, and Cecil Counties. Carroll County saw a decrease from 5,084 to 5,028 and Montgomery County saw a more dramatic decrease from fiscal year 2022 to 2023, dropping from 59,614 to 52,066, and again in fiscal year 2024 when citations dipped to 50,942.
“Confusing opposite-lane scenario”
However, the majority of those citations - 73% in 2024 and 72% in 2023 - occurred when drivers were traveling in the opposite direction of the school bus. Critics, like Beeber and Delegate Moon, believe that’s often unfair and not putting students in danger.
“Some of these bus stops are located on 7-lane highways and so you’re expecting a car 6, 7, or 8 lanes away from a school bus stop on the other side, to stop or else you’re getting a 250 dollar ticket,” Moon testified last year. “We have been sold on the concept that drivers are not stopping behind the bus and we need to do something about it, when in fact, most of the tickets and revenue appears to be from drivers who are getting tagged in that confusing opposite-lane scenario.”
“The general rule of thumb is, unless there is a physical barrier dividing the two sides of the highway, either a grass median or a concrete or metal barrier, you need to stop,” Lt. Brandt explained to WMAR-2 News.
Maryland regulations require a bus to drop off students in a spot that prevents the child from needing to cross the street. So why are drivers traveling the opposite direction being ticketed?
Lt. Brandt explained: “I understand why that would seem strange, but think about how unpredictable people are in general. They're focused on what they're doing. And maybe that particular child is texting on their phone. Maybe that particular child wants to go to a friend's house. Their favorite chicken place is across the street, or they're just carrying some papers and they fall and that paper blows across the street. It's much safer to make sure that all the traffic has stopped and that if that were to happen, the child is safe, than to say, well, it's not likely that they would cross over, because I don't want to risk anybody's child for a not likely situation. I'd much rather everyone was safe.”